August 09, 2008

Lieberman Being Vetted by McCain as VP?

“[McCain] loves Lieberman. And he is on the [short-]list because
Lieberman has never embarrassed anyone, never misspoken. The first rule
is, don’t take someone who costs you votes,” said one McCain adviser.

But
not everyone would be enthusiastic about Mr Lieberman being added to
the ticket. While Mr Lieberman has staunchly defended Mr McCain’s
support of the surge, the escalation of US troops in Iraq, and the
lawmakers have teamed up on legislative proposals to ­combat global
warming, the registered independent is aligned with Democrats on most
other issues.

“Conservatives would be pissed as hell – I think
you would have a revolt, but sometimes John does what John wants to
do,” the McCain adviser said. (FT.com)

Everyone who writes about such things should have learned long ago that
Joe Lieberman cannot be stripped of his committee chair and that his
leaving the caucus will have no effect on who controls the Senate or
the makeup and control of the committees. Simply put, the Democrats
have no incentive to kick Lieberman out of the caucus other than to not
have a mole sitting in their strategy sessions. And the Republicans
would gain nothing from Lieberman's decision to caucus with them other
than to lose the narrative that they have bipartisan support. Lieberman
will stay right where he is until next January.

At that point, he'll
have to convince the Republicans to let him sit in on their caucuses
and take one of their slots on committees. And the chances that they'll
trust him on domestic affairs are nil. (BooMan)

Lieberman's office said, "It's not going to happen." (FT.com) What are the chances that McCain will take him on? As noted, it might not be the best tactic for him to do that. On the other hand, "

Another McCain adviser said that it was unlikely that the Republican
candidate would base his decision on “tactical considerations”.

“He can be pragmatic, but on the biggest decisions he tends to favour his instinct for the bigger picture,” the adviser said. (FT.com)

Whatso-freakin'-ever. At least as far as I'm concerned. The extreme right has other ideas, it seems. From Down with Tyranny:

[T]he GOP extremists who control much of the party's actual base have
quietly told him that if he picks a moderate he can kiss the base
bye-bye. Today religious right kook, Richard Land, was less quiet in an
interview with CBS News:

.....I think that the vice presidential choice that John McCain makes is
probably the most important choice he's going to make in this entire
campaign. Because he has no room for error, no margin for doubt. If he
picks a pro-choice running mate, it will confirm the unease and the
mistrust that some evangelicals--and don't forget this, social
conservative Catholics--feel about McCain.

If he picks a
pro-life running mate, it will help to ease their concerns and confirm
to them that, while he may not have been their first choice, he may not
have been their second choice, that it's better to vote for a third
class fireman than it is to allow a first class arsonist to become
president....

I like Joe Lieberman. Joe Lieberman wrote the forward to my book. And I
would love to have Joe Lieberman as Secretary of Defense or Secretary
of State. But not as Vice President, not as Attorney General and not as
a Supreme Court Justice.

Since McCain got nominated right over the heads of conservatives, I thought he'd work the moderate angle during the campaign. I was wrong about that one, wasn't I? He's done nothing since but pander to the far right. So I can't see him picking a Democrat to be his potential succesor.

It's difficult to believe that Joe Lieberman is too liberal for conservatives, but Grover Norquist calls Lieberman "completely unacceptable" while evangelical leader Richard Land thinks the pro-choice senator would be a catastrophic pick (William Kristol is a notable exception). At least we know that Lieberman is experienced at losing vice presidential elections, not to mention Democratic primaries.

Maybe Joe bolstered McCain's reputation to pundits. But as a
tactical move, this would be a huge flop. Does McCain really think he's
going to win back all those newly registered Democrats by choosing the guy residents of Connecticut say they wouldn't reelect against Lamont 51-36 if a re-match were held today?

What a wonderful train wreck that pick would be - all the press
would do is ask McCain whether he agrees with the issues Lieberman
still sides with Democrats on.